Olly is the first to find Don’s grave – right before he goes to work – because the sad emotion is exactly the right one he needs to be in to get his last promotion. The last day before three days off from work. Dumbass.

Lexi comes home from her first day of school with the realization that the universe does not revolve around her. She resolves to do something about that.

She creates a club she calls Lexi’s Universe. Looky, looky, there is a universe that really does revolve around her. She needs friends and a BFF for her aspiration and now she has a group of girls that are willing to be her friends. Well, at least, they have to come when she calls (starts a gathering). So she has a dance party – club social, not an actual event.

Paige becomes a toddler and the very first thing she does is refuse to Lindsay’s suggestion to sit on the potty. She was smiling before and after – Silly – and this was the only time she didn’t smile. She didn’t even throw a stomp or anything. Just a no and a frown and then a big smile and to the potty she went. And, her eyes are green which makes more sense than Lexi’s weirdly brownish-red eyes.

Orion joined her in the bathroom. He seemed just as happy to be there as she was. He has to practice the piano after he finishes his time on the potty, which he looks so thrilled about.

After her first attempt on the potty, she was sad at the mess she made. Lindsay attempted to console her, but Paige was having none of that. Lindsay tried four times and was rejected every time. I was determined she was going to be consoled. She was determined she was not. She won.

Some defiance, more tears, and finally she is fully potty trained. I made them continue to train until she was done. One skill is mastered.

Buffy is working hard on mastering herbalism – so hard that she sets the stove on fire. I went ahead and cheat-completed the task of identifying the remaining unidentified plants as three more trips to Granite Falls were fruitless (see what I did there?). I don’t know if the plants will be glitched in every game save or it will be sporadic, but they are definitely not growing in this save. Anyone that rolls or brings in Outdoor Enthusiast will get a new Nature aspiration rolled immediately for the rest of this challenge. Back to Buffy, this means she is on the last tier – 5 nights in the tent, collect 15 insects, and master herbalism. She has the insects, and is working on herbalism. The tent thing is a pain in the ass, but she is slowly getting those counted – six hours at night, one night at a time – as long as she remembers to go to bed on time and is tired enough to sleep for six hours at a stretch.

Lexi invites over her chosen BFF – Kassandra. She needs to build a relationship so that they can become official BFFs – and it is going slowly. Kassandra doesn’t agree with everything (anything) Lexi says. The only thing they have in common is they both love cats. Their relationship goes down as often as it goes up. But this is the BFF that has been chosen and this is the BFF that she will have. That took long enough, Finally!

I try to send Paige upstairs forgetting that she doesn’t know how to climb the stairs yet – that means she needs to spend some time on the slide instead of babbling to the teddy bear.

She spends enough time on the slide to get her movement up to level 2, but now she is exhausted, which means it is time for a temper tantrum before she will agree to potty. Once she has gone to the potty, Xia will take her to bed and read her a story. She needs every imagination point she can get.

Buffy maxes out Herbalism, Finally! She looks thrilled. This is her thrilled and excited face. Trust me. She is thrilled.

Olly realizes he is getting close to completing his aspiration and he takes the time to look for a life partner. He looks at his contacts and notices that he knows someone – young and single – and he gives her a call. Maki Watanabe is available, and she is interested. She comes over and they get down to the business of getting to know each other. Since he still needs to earn his last promotion, Olly takes his time building a relationship with Maki. In the challenge world, that means he takes two days instead of one to get her to become his girlfriend. While Olly works on getting to know Maki, Lexi is working on her last child age friend.

Cuteness – because Paige is cute – she is working on movement, being the princess she is, all smiles and giggles.

Happy smiles after a successful potty without a mess. Paige is silly so she smiles and giggles a lot. Even when she is defiant, she does so with a smile. I haven’t been able to catch her angry face – they are all smiley, giggly faces.

OOhhh, we caught a face! Whereas it was rare to catch Lexi smiling, this is one of the rare non-smiling faces I have seen Paige make. She is exhausted – and even knowing this is exhausted about to pass out angry face, she doesn’t look as angry as Lexi always looked – she looks like she could smile so easy.

Buffy is so over this outdoor enthusiast thing – she is ready to sleep in a real bed, in the house, once again. Maybe even a house without kids. Soon, soon…

It is a family breakfast and just about everyone made it down for breakfast, at breakfast time. Only Orion missed the group shot. I think he was in the bathroom. Of course, Olly is eating birthday cake, which explains the pooch he has growing around his middle.

Buffy becomes an Adult – without a cake because I missed the notification. Damn! Still trying to complete the sleep in a tent portion of the aspiration… Buffy… … …

Olly completes his aspiration, Finally! Four down, one to go. He calls up his girlfriend and after he proposes (twice) they get married and get the hell out of Dodge. Just waiting on Buffy now… … …

Lindsay finds out she is pregnant again and this time when she tells Orion his reaction is not as severe as the first two times. He appears to be resigned to the fact that there are going to be kids in the house. He gives her a look, then just wanders out of the bedroom to find a shower. He didn’t even cry this time.

Xia is still alive, but I have been getting reminders that her time is almost up, so I am expecting sadness to invade the house any day now. It seems like she has been around a really long time. I am hoping to not have triplets, so I want her to not die yet.

The first monster makes his appearance – I knew I forgot something in the new house (the toddler room has the nightlight, the singles room doesn’t) – Lexi tries to make friends, but the monster is having none of that. She eventually gives up.

The girls have their “breakfast” on the couch together. Lexi asks Paige how her day is going and Paige tells her to go away. Sounds about right for sisters. That really was their conversation. Made me laugh. Lexi was Happy, Paige was Angry.

I figured something out – Lexi had several adult age friends – Olly and Bunny – they count because they don’t live in the household any more. But, in order to update the aspiration, she has to have contact with them, so she called them up and invited them over. She invited both since I wasn’t sure which one was already counted in her 1/2. They both showed up and … Check, aspiration complete.

With her aspiration done, we now focus on Paige’s skills – she still needs imagination and thinking. Go figure. She and Lexi play dolls to get imagination up to level 3 – check.

Dammit Buffy and in front of the kids! Now everyone is crying.

Hello, Don. Whatcha’ doing? I swear to God, if you screw up this up and tonight doesn’t count, I will bring you back to life and torture you for eternity!

Well, it seems a broken dollhouse is the least of our concerns. Crapola! I sat and watched the entire process while holding my breath – don’t wake up Buffy (she needs 6 hours uninterrupted sleep in the tent) and don’t wake up Paige.

Lexi is already scarred – what the hell. She finished her homework with Don’s help before they got up to check on Xia.

Orion and Lindsay join them to see Xia’s passing. Buffy and Paige slept through it. Sigh of relief. Not because it will prevent the sadness, just because they need the sleep.

So passes Xia, the founder, and Don, the sometimes trapped but never reluctant spouse. This also means BUFFY is the oldest person in the house. Still waiting on the last TWO days of tent sleeping… … … … I keep forgetting the #1 rule on this task – they have to sleep 6 hours and WAKE UP ON THEIR OWN. I get antsy to see if it counted and I wake her up. I have shorted circuited her count now twice, otherwise she would be done… 🙁 My fault, so two more freaking days of waiting.

Orion had completed his initial aspiration but for some reason I gave him a second one and have been making him work at it. I decided to be nice and switched him out of it to Fortune and have given him a break. He can now free range, except for his career goals/tasks, and be happy. Lindsay had also completed her initial aspiration and I had done the same thing to her. Her second aspiration is Super Parent, which I am going to leave on her, but she is going to be able to free range, also except for her career tasks/goals. She and Orion have done their job and produced the second generation. Right now, they are using their free will to cry in bed together.

This is Paige’s sad face – she is so sad over Xia – she lets Lindsay comfort her and then stops to giggle.

As a reminder, Buffy Hates Children… HAHA – this is what is happening while Orion and Lindsay hide in bed crying. The only thing helping Buffy is her +4 sadness outweighs her +1 anger (children) and her +1 tension (toddlers).

Ugh! Children! (Some sims just cannot stand to be around children!) +1 Anger

And playful just kicked sadness to the back seat. She even got up to Very Playful from the jokes Paige was telling. Silly toddlers for the win. She never made it to hysterical and I am glad I didn’t have to make a decision on whether or not to calm her down…

That was Cute (That toddler was utterly adorable. How can something so small be so cute?!) +1 Playful

As Buffy tries to get her fourth official night in the tent, everyone congregates outside – I am terrified someone is going to wake her up early. Geez, Louise people, why is this now the place to be? Ok, my fault for sending Lexi to the pool to give her something to do, but OMG, did everyone else have to come out also? It is 4-freaking-AM! Go back to bed!

And we have a bear. I believe this is the first bear phase this challenge. Congratulations Lexi, the Center of the Universe, is a Bear.

Yes! It counted – 4/5 nights in a tent, one more to go! Buffy gets to go to work today. (This is a long update, for me)

All parents have used the electronic babysitter at one time or another. Yes we have. It doesn’t hurt that it builds imagination skill either. And the best part is that it is keeping Paige out of trouble.

Daddy! My diaper is loaded and I need a bath. It slipped out when I was watching TV. (Seriously I don’t know how she got dirty watching TV. She did need a diaper change and her hygiene was half down, but I never saw her use her diaper. She is maxed out on the potty so she shouldn’t have accidents without going deep into the red on her bladder.)

I will not miss this part of this challenge – everything is always broken.

Don cleans house and cleans Paige and is finally getting her to bed for a nap when she gets scared by a thunderstorm – time to run downstairs to the other side of the house.

This should be Buffy’s last night in the tent… and Lindsay is in labor and there is a thunderstorm. Fingers crossed…

Breathe… 1… 2… 3…

Our last pregnancy produces twins: Rebeca and Rachel. And, neither of the twins have the blue skin.

As with the last generation, I will include all of the kids in the poll, but our heiress will need to be either Lexi or Paige in order to continue the blue skin for the base game bonus. Neither of them have the purple eyes. Lexi is sad because she hasn’t changed into the bear costume yet and Paige is hungry and has to pee. They haven’t noticed their new sisters yet.

Paige and Lexi are both Happy to meet their new sisters! Color me surprised They can’t wait to play with their new siblings. Of course, you can’t tell because Lexi is wearing a bear costume.

The flamingos have been updated to add for the second generation. The rules don’t say whether to count just the current household members or to just add new ones, so I just add, which means there are now 33 flamingos in place: (Xia and Don + (5+Lindsay) for the 1st gen + 4 for the 2nd gen x 3 each = 36). Gnomingo takes his job seriously.

Finally!Although this picture looks like every other one. But Buffy has finally completed her aspiration. Now to find a honey and to move out. And she actually has an option – he is still single and of the right age. Go figure. Now for the sun to come up so she can invite him over.

Orion and Buffy take care of the twins while Lindsay gets some sleep.

Dandre Comer

While everyone was distracted, Paige escaped, and she is off, heading for the street. She was actually heading for Don and Xia’s graves, but last thing we need is a sad toddler.

After redirecting her back to the house, Orion has a chat with about where she was going and what she was planning on doing.

Dandre was a challenge but Buffy was determined. He was going to be hers.

Because there was room in the house, and I am a sucker, Lexi got a kitten because she behaved herself (no tantrums, no messes) and completed her childhood aspiration. And she can’t be that bad since she loves cats. This is Zzyzx. Don’t ask me, Lexi named him. Zzyzx Zaffre. She said it worked – I am still trying to figure out how to pronounce it. “ziZix”?

Z is Affectionate, Curious, and a Prowler. His pedigree sheet said he was a Bombay.

Oriel lives with her husband, Vikram, his brother, Trevon, and their two cats, Josie and Cleo.

Bunny lives with her husband, Aditya.

Olly lives with his wife, Maki.

and Finally!

Buffy lives with her husband, Dandre.

Simmers!

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